Have Your Memoirs Written By the Author of Gene Simmons’ Memoirs (Who Is Not Gene Simmons)

Ben Greenman—prolific author, librettist, pop critic and editor at the New Yorker, and long the Distinguished Spokesjudge of our Literary Upstart competition—once revealed to our Questionnaire for Writer Types that he wrote Kiss and Make-Up, the celebrity tell-all by Gene Simmons, of KISS. (He also wrote I Don’t Mean to Be Rude, But…, by Simon Cowell). More recently, he’s approached the subject of fame from a different angle, with his collection Celebrity Chekhov, featuring retellings of Anton Chekhov’s short stories, but with famous people (we published his version of “Death of a Government Clerk,” this time starring Conan O’Brien.)

Tonight, the powerHouse Arena hosts a book party for Greenman and another writer with an interest in narratives of fame and a gift for ghosting: some guy I’ve never heard of named Neil Strauss, who under his own name has written something called The Game (which is maybe about tennis?), while having also ghostwritten Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt and Jenna Jameson’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. At the start of the party, attendees will tell their life stories, and Greenman and Strauss will each pick one to write the memoir of, in about 45 minutes, to be presented (with covers designed by the Harper Perennial folk) at the end of the party. (In the meantime, “Drinks will be served.”)

If you’ve ever wanted to feel famous without doing anything, or to have authored a book without writing it, this is the event for you. (Other possible events for you: reality television.)